


A Merry Little Christmas

by FictionalKnight (Northern_Star)



Category: Smallville
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Holiday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-19
Updated: 2009-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-04 15:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Star/pseuds/FictionalKnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lois heads home to spend what she thinks will be a quiet Christmas alone..</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Merry Little Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2008 Christmas challenge at [12days_of_clois](http://community.livejournal.com/12days_of_clois/)
> 
> **Prompt:** #10/ Coal  
> **Spoilers:** Some small spoilers for S8 (This story assumes that in this world, there's no such person as Davis Bloome and hence he can't have done what he's done in _Bride_.)
> 
>  
> 
> Huge thank you to [](http://htbthomas.livejournal.com/profile)[**htbthomas**](http://htbthomas.livejournal.com/) for the beta.

Lois grabbed the grocery bag from the passenger seat of her car, then shut the door with her foot and headed toward her apartment complex. Her nice, new home, in a nice new apartment complex.

Her very _empty_ new home, in a still very _empty_ apartment complex... most of the units hadn't even been sold yet.

She shook the thought right out of her head. Depressing thoughts were not allowed. Not today. And there would be no crying in her eggnog, either - assuming she even figured out how to make the stuff, and that she hadn't forgotten to get any of the ingredients for it. Well... if all else failed, she would still have brandy, and she could drink that straight up!

Lois tried to get a better hold on the paper bag in her hands, as she rummaged through her purse for the keys to the front door. She sneered at the big, happy paper cutout of Santa that the management had taped to the door's big glass window.

"Oh, stop judging me," she told it. "I chose to spend Christmas on my own, okay?"

She hadn't really chosen to spend it alone, really, it had just... happened this way. Chloe and Jimmy were spending their very first Christmas alone together - and she had insisted on leaving them alone, even though they'd kept telling her she was more than welcome. Truth was, as much as she wanted to give them space, she didn't exactly enjoy being the third wheel, nor did she particularly want to spend Christmas with a couple of lovebirds who would no doubt turn into octopi and be all over one another as soon as she had her back turned...

Chloe had Jimmy, Ollie was apparently going out with Dinah Lance these days, and Clark had... Clark had Lana, of course. She was back, after all, wasn't she? Surely by now she'd claimed him right back. That would explain why he'd been so distracted and distant lately, and why he kept making excuses to leave work. Of course it did.

"Just because I don't have anyone doesn't mean I'm not perfectly happy," she told annoyingly-smiling-Santa, as she finally managed to get the door opened.

She shut it with right back with a nudge of her hip, and made for the stairs. Taking a deep breath, and readjusting her hold on the grocery bag, Lois started up the few flights of stairs to her condo, on the third floor.

Her empty condo, on the mostly empty third floor.

"Oh, stop it!" she snapped at herself. "You don't even like Christmas!"

Really, she didn't.

And she would have spent tonight - and tomorrow - at work quite happily, if they'd only approved the extra time. But they hadn't, and instead had sent her home with a turkey she would never even know how to cook, and wishes for a happy Christmas.

She'd donated the turkey to a food bank, and the wishes had gone in one ear and right out through the other. She had no use for either of these things.

She hadn't even decorated. Or gotten a tree. Or sent Christmas cards to anyone. Not that she really had anyone to send cards to. The General wouldn't care. Everyone else she had seen over the last couple of days, and she'd wished them a Merry Christmas face to face - that was better than a Hallmark card with some made up wishes and a stupid reindeer with a red nose on the cover, wasn't it?

No, of course it wasn't better. She should at least have bothered getting cards...

"See, this is exactly why the only gift you're getting this year is going to be a lump of coal," she mumbled to herself as she went up the last couple of stairs that led to her floor.

Lois took a deep breath. The hallway still had the scent of brand new industrial carpeting. She shook her head, realizing she was doing it again - feeling sorry for herself. No, she probably wouldn't be getting any presents, but then again, she had gotten no more of those for anyone than she'd gotten them any cards.

That wasn't exactly right... She'd chipped in rather generously to help make sure Chloe and Jimmy got a really nice honeymoon - which they'd had - and though that was more of an early Christmas present than an actual one, on Christmas day, Chloe was the one who had insisted that she not go out of her way to get them anything else.

Lois then remembered the small rectangular box she had in her purse, and she rolled her eyes at herself. On a whim, she'd gotten this way over-priced, fancy fountain pen. For Clark, of all people. It was a stupid idea... what would he want a fountain pen for? Who in their right mind used those anymore, anyway? Lois wasn't sure she'd even give it to him at all. Why would she? What did he care - he had Lana after all, didn't he?

She shook her head. "You're doing it again, Lane," she berated herself.

A few more steps and she was standing outside her door, staring right at the shiny, gold-plated "3-C" just below the peephole. She stuck the key in the keyhole, turned, then opened the door.

"Hi, honey, I'm ho--"

Lois's eyes grew wide and she almost dropped her grocery bag when she found herself face to face with Oliver Queen.

"Well, hi there, Lois," he said, with a rather smug look on his face. "But I don't think Dinah would appreciate having you calling me _honey_..."

Mouth gaping, Lois tried to think of a smart comeback, but it got lost in the back of her throat when Ollie moved aside and she realized that he wasn't there alone. Jimmy, Chloe and Dinah were all there as well.

"What are--?" Lois looked over to Chloe, hoping she'd know the answer to the unspoken question.

"We couldn't very well leave you all alone on Christmas, now could we?" Chloe said smiling.

"Your very first Christmas in your new condo," Jimmy chimed in, "We couldn't let you spend it alone, so we invited ourselves..."

"And a few friends," Dinah added, moving closer to Ollie and placing a hand possessively on his shoulder.

Still frozen in place right near the threshold, Lois tried to find the right words. "I-- I don't know what to say," was all she could come up with.

"Merry Christmas would be fine, I think," Chloe told her as she grabbed the grocery bag from Lois's hands.

Lois seemed to magically unfreeze right at that moment, and she followed her cousin to the kitchen. "You guys really went all out, didn't you?" she commented as she looked around the place. The table was set - for seven, she noted, but it didn't immediately register that there were only five people present - there was a turkey roasting in the oven, the completely unavoidable fruit cake on the counter, and, if she knew Oliver at all, there was likely to be an expensive bottle of champagne in the refrigerator, and a few equally expensive bottles of wine somewhere.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Chloe said, a look of mischief in her eyes.

"Don't tell me you've hidden Santa in my bedroom," Lois said in a chuckle. "You guys are..." She turned and faced the assembly of her friends before adding, "You guys are just the most wonderful friends..." in a small, choked up voice.

"You're not going to start crying on us, are you?" Ollie teased.

"Cry, me? I never cry!" Lois replied, as she took in a long calming breath.

"You've got just enough time to get changed before the last guests arrive," Chloe told her, giving her a nudge.

"The last--?" Lois looked at her, and suddenly it clicked that there were more place sets than people. Two more. Her smile died on her lips at that realization. One would have made sense to her. One, would probably have made her a little happier than she wanted to acknowledge, even, but two...? Two wasn't a very good number. She was pretty sure she disliked two very much.

She was faintly aware of what Chloe was saying as she led her to the bedroom - that they had invited _all_ her friends - but Lois's thoughts had gone right back to that place where they liked to take pity on her, and she was having the hardest time getting them to move out. She'd made her peace with the fact that she was spending Christmas on her own - she was okay with that, it wasn't anywhere near as depressing as this... This was... This was going to be the most awkward evening in the history of the world.

Slowly and without conviction, Lois stared at the contents of her closet, trying to find something she could wear. But she couldn't have cared less anymore. Why bother, really.

"They're here," Jimmy called out to everyone.

Lois glanced out the window, and sure enough, that was Clark's pick-up truck right down there. And of course, he wasn't alone. Oh yay.

Her heart started breaking just a little further. It really wasn't fair. This was so much worse then spending Christmas alone. So, so much worse. How could her friends do this to her? Didn't they have any idea--? No, of course they didn't. She hadn't told them. And she wasn't about to do that now, either.

Putting on a brave face, if only for her own benefit, Lois grabbed the first outfit she saw and threw it on without paying much attention to what it was. Why should she make any effort to wear something nice anyway, when this perfectly good Christmas Eve with friends was about to be ruined?

Smoothing the wrinkles out of her ensemble, Lois took a deep breath, put on her best fake-happy expression, and walked out of her room.

Just in time to see a giant Christmas tree coming into her apartment.

Oh, perfect. Clark had brought a Christmas tree. A real one, apparently. Just what she needed... The only slightly positive thought was that, knowing how well she could take care of plants, it would likely be very dead well before New Year's.

Lois stood in the doorway between her kitchen and the living room, looking on as the tree finally fully emerged, and, behind it, an annoyingly good-looking Clark Kent with an equally annoying smile on his face.

Gritting her teeth, Lois braced herself for the arrival of the last guest. And finally, there she was...

"Mrs. Kent!" Chloe exclaimed cheerfully, "It's so good to see you again!" She walked up to her and grabbed the box she was carrying, setting it down a little further away.

Lois mentally picked her jaw up from the carpeted floor, and with shaky legs, walked over to the door, her mind whirling as she went. Clark had come with his mother? His mother was in Smallville for the holidays? And she hadn't known?

"Hi! Uh, welcome," Lois said, the words coming out a little awkwardly. She hugged Martha who gladly hugged her right back.

"Merry Christmas, Lois," she said.

When Lois pulled away, she saw Clark out of the corner of her eye. He'd just gotten done putting the tree down in the living room. Nervously she said hello, then stepped back a little further into the kitchen.

"What, don't I get a hug, too?" he asked with a lopsided smile.

"Are you kidding, Smallville?" Lois replied, looking him up and down. "You're covered in pine needles."

"Oh." Clark looked down at himself, obviously a little embarrassed. He took his coat off, which Chloe quickly took from him before disappearing into the bedroom carrying both his and his mother's coat.

"I think we have just enough time to decorate the tree before the turkey is ready," Dinah announced, as she took a quick peek at the clock on the stove.

Before Lois knew it, the tree was up, and decorations were being put on branches, everyone pitching in to put them up. Martha had brought close to half of what they usually put up on the tree at the farm, explaining that there was only a very small tree there this year and its branches were already sagging under the weight of all the ornaments.

The box was emptied in no time, and suddenly they were done. Someone plugged in the extension cord for the lights, which lit up the tree and the entire room, as everyone simultaneously let out exclamations of awe.

"Wait, we forgot this," Clark said, holding up a crystalline star tree-topper.

He handed it to Lois, who seemed to be taken a little by surprise. She was about to protest that she wasn't nearly tall enough to reach the top of the tree, but he didn't let her.

"It's your tree," Chloe offered, "You should put the star on top."

With everyone encouraging her on, Lois finally agreed to be the one to place the star on the tree. She disappeared in the kitchen momentarily, fetching a footstool so she'd be able to reach the highest branch on the tree.

"Careful," Clark said, as Lois stepped onto the first narrow step. One of his hands immediately flew to the small of her back, insuring she wouldn't fall.

"Oh, stop being a worry-wart, Smallville!" she rebuked him, though in reality she was far from put out by the fact that he cared. "Give me that star," she asked him, holding her hand out for the ornament.

She weighed the proffered tree-topper in her hand, admiring it for a moment before finally setting it on the highest branch of the Christmas tree. Sighing contentedly, Lois took a step down on the footstool. Two strong hands instantly encircled her waist, but this time, she didn't complain - even though she figured they might have expected her to.

They stood around the tree for a few short seconds, each of them in silent contemplation, when the oven timer went off, its shrill alarm indicating that dinner was ready to be served.

Lois stayed behind just a moment longer, unable to pry her eyes away from the Christmas tree.

_Her_ Christmas tree.

It was somehow... magical. And along with it had come the gift of friendship and good company. Neither of these things would fit underneath the tree itself, but made for much better gifts than that lump of coal she was still quite sure she'd be getting this year.

Wiping a stray tear from under her left eye, Lois took a quick step back and turned toward the kitchen, before... bumping right into a certain someone, of the tall-dark-and-handsome persuasion.

"Are you all right?" Clark asked.

"Of course!" Lois replied immediately. She took a steadying breath and added, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Clark eyed her suspiciously for a short second. "Because I know you," he said simply.

"Probably not as well as you think, Smallville," she told him, looking everywhere but directly at his face.

"Don't be so sure," he replied, in a soft whisper.

Lois looked up, uncertain what to say. And then, from the kitchen came exclamations of wonderment as the turkey apparently was taken out of the oven.

"Let's go see that bird," Lois suggested, as she left the living room rather abruptly.

~+~+~+~

It was getting close to midnight when Jimmy decided it was probably time he take his very sleepy new wife back home. Oliver and Dinah had left earlier when he'd gotten an urgent call from one of his associates in Europe. He'd given them an explanation Lois wasn't sure she'd understood, but by the way he'd acted, she strongly suspected that whatever it was, was probably a job for Green Arrow - not Oliver Queen.

Would it be wrong to ask them to stay a little longer? Would it be terribly selfish? Just until midnight... Just so there would be someone there she could actually wish a merry Christmas to? Maybe she'd even go and fish out that little box at the bottom of her purse, and--

At Chloe's yawn, Lois decided she wouldn't even ask. They'd gone through all this trouble for her already, she really had no right to impose on them any further.

And so it was that coats were brought back out from the bedroom where they'd spent the evening, and guests were getting ready to head back from where they'd come from, leaving Lois to tackle the mountain of dishes on her own. She eyed it with much hostility, before remembering that she didn't have anywhere to be the next day anyway, so she'd have plenty of time to conquer Mount St. Dinnerware.

As the door started closing behind the four departing guests, a spoon fell noisily to the floor, quickly followed by a few of its fellow forks and knives in a quick cascade of steely pings as they hit the ceramic tile. Lois groaned and ran to catch whatever other utensils might want to join them on the floor.

She secured a pile of salad bowls and picked up the few stray pieces of silverware that still lay at her feet.

"Here," came Clark's voice from behind her, as she got back up.

Lois spun on her heel, a bit startled. "You're still here," she stated, frowning. She took the teaspoon he was handing her, looking behind him at the closed door. Everyone else had left.

"Figured you could use the help cleaning up," he said, shrugging.

Lois glanced back at him, still frowning. "But you were leaving..."

"And?"

"And... and... what about your mom?" she stammered, uncertain how to argue with that kind of logic.

He smiled. One of those terribly annoying smiles Lois hated so much because they always caused her stomach to do somersaults. "She's riding back with Chloe and Jimmy."

"That's crazy, Clark," Lois protested, "You can't just pawn off your mom like that on Christmas, in favor of a pile of dirty dishes! Not after she came all the way to Kansas from Washington to spend the holidays with her only son."

Clark frowned. "She'll be here all week, you know. And it's not like I'm planning on never going home again... We're just talking about an hour or so. And this way you won't spend all of Christmas day doing dishes."

"You really don't have to do that," Lois said assertively. As much as she appreciated the help - and as much as she appreciated the fact that it was Clark offering it - she wasn't exactly sure how to deal with the idea of him, in her kitchen, doing dishes... it was... way too domestic.

Before Lois could find anything else to say to stop him, Clark had taken his coat off and started running some hot water in the sink.

Lois crossed her arms in front of her chest and eyed him defiantly. "I'm not washing dishes at this time of night for sure, so you might as well stop what you're doing."

Clark looked at her and smiled. "Fine then, just go sit in the living room and, I don't know, watch a movie or something. I'll be done in...oh, half an hour?"

"I-- no, wait, you're not supposed--" Lois sighed, helplessly. All her strategies were backfiring on her... "Fine," she grumbled, walking away. She distinctly heard Clark laughing as she left the kitchen.

A few moments later, she returned, holding the small box she'd fished out of her purse. Since all else was failing, maybe she'd be able to distract him with this and put an end to this crazy domestic scene, which made her so terribly uncomfortable.

"Oh look, it's midnight," she announced, using the box to point to the digital clock on the oven. In a falsely cheerful voice, she added, " I didn't really have time to wrap it, but, uh, Merry Christmas, Smallville." She held out the box to him.

Frowning, Clark grabbed a washcloth to dry his hands, and dropping it back on the counter, he took the small box from Lois. "What's this?" he asked.

"It's called a present," she said, smirking. "You know, people exchange those for Christmas."

"Yeah, I--" he started before seemingly changing his mind. "Thank you."

Clark opened the box to reveal the fountain pen it contained. He looked back up to Lois, wearing an expression of complete puzzlement.

"You don't like it," Lois said very matter-of-factly. "I should have known you'd think it was silly. Who wants to use those when there are computers--"

"No, no," Clark cut in immediately. "I love it. Really. It's a beautiful pen. Thank you." His cheeks suddenly taking on a brighter shade of pink, he went on, "Have you checked under your tree?"

Lois frowned. "What for? There isn't anything there."

"Uh, actually, yes, there is."

Lois's frown deepened. "There is?"

She looked over to the living room, then back to Clark, before finally, hesitantly, walking off to look under the Christmas tree. There, she found two boxes - both were clearly marked "To Lois." The gift tag on the bigger of the two indicated that it was from Chloe and Jimmy; the other didn't say. She picked up the smaller one and walked back to the kitchen.

With a questioning look, she held up the box. Clark smiled awkwardly.

"Merry Christmas," he said hesitantly, making it sound almost like a question.

"I-- uh." Lois looked from the box in her hand back to Clark. "I don't know what to say."

"Well, open it," he encouraged her. Teasingly, he added, "maybe something will come to you when you see what's inside."

Lois took off the brightly colored wrapping and opened the small rectangular box. Inside it she found a black leather box, which she opened to reveal... a fountain pen! One which was exactly identical to the one she'd just given him.

"You're kidding?" she said, her mind stuttering. He'd gotten for her the same thing she'd gotten for him? The chances for something like that happening had to be astronomical...

"You keep complaining about never being able to find anything to write with around the newsroom, so I figured..." Clark shrugged. "The ink cartridge inside is a red one. You seem to favor the color when you edit my copy."

Lois gave him a large, very genuine smile, as she walked over to hug him. "Thank you," she said. "I wasn't expecting..."

"You're welcome," he replied. "And thank you."

Lois pulled away, looking at the pen in its fancy leather box. "You really have good taste," she said jokingly, considering she'd picked out the exact same one. She looked back at him again, expecting to find a teasing smile on his lips and certain that he'd have a great comeback, too. Instead, she found that he had a very serious expression on his face, and her stomach flip-flopped at the sight.

"Yeah, I think so, too," he replied in a voice that was almost a full octave lower than normal.

For a moment they stood, looking at one another, before slowly, hesitantly moving in closer and closer, until they were mere inches away.

"Merry Christmas, Lois," Clark said in a whisper before gently claiming her lips in a tender kiss.

Lois's last truly coherent thought was that she was starting to like Christmas a lot, after all.

**&gt; End. **

 

**Happy Holidays to all! **


End file.
